The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1887-03-18
FASHIONABLE NEW YORK PEOPLE.
Young Men Whose Sole Ambition IL
Along the Line Of Dress.

Young Men Whose Sole Ambition IL
Along the Line Of Dress.
We have young men hero whose solo am
bition Ia along tho limo Of dress, the "eter-
nal fitness of things" to wear; not alone
mon who wear morning, afternoon and oven
Ing costumes while In the city; not alone
mon, 10 to speak, who change their suits
half dozen times q day at fashionable
watering places during the summer, but
men who have special suits for specific &C.
casions.
Az, for instance, they arc at the scashore
A boating excursion, yachting or otherwise,
Is planned. They loom up in full sailor rig.
A tramp across the hills or elsewhere Is on
the programme. They join 1t with fault
leA pedestrian costume, from cap to shoes,
with staff thrown in. They wear plain
duck, with pumps and boutonniere, as they
read the morning paper and smoke fra
grant Havana ON tho broad hotel piazza.
They attend the evening concert in elabo-
rate evening dress. Their head gear cor
responds with their other attire, and every
thing matches all else besides. In no whit
do these semblances Of mankind differ from
their sisters, their cousins or their aunts
In this all-asorbing occupation.
A woman Of fashion has as many parasols
as she has street dresses. This hat goes with
this costume This parasol with that hat.
Some even 60 so far as to have puppy dogs
to match the color Of their dress, and it Is
a cold day when any acrid critic Of similar
gender can point the finger Of detection at
any garment Of inharmony upon the Shout
ders, the head, the feet or the hands of these
fashionable cranks of gentility.
To certain extent these people can be
called fashionable, I suppose, although 1t
would be absurd to say that such idiocy as
this is the fashion with any considerable
portion of New York people. Enough,
however, to form a very marked group arc
here, and their conspicuosity, their promi-
hence attracts attention to such degree by
the very fact of their oddity, their peculiar
ity, as to lead the thoughtless to overesti-
mate their numerical strength. The in
creasing wealth of many New York families
is undoubtedly the secret of many curious
customs that are little by little obtaining
foothold here. There was q time, when
New York was further down town than it is
now, that very pleasant social custom oh.
tanned on New Years day. The population
was small, and social circles were limited.
They were less cut up into cliques and
church sets than they are now, and the
radius of habitation was smaller. Then it
was possible for gentleman, between the
hours of 8 in the morning and at night,
to cover his social acquaintanceship with
call, in which ceremony and sociability
went hand in hand, when a call was some
thing more than flirt, when the object
sought was not q list as long as the moral
law, when women estimated the pleasure of
the day by the satisfaction derived from
seeing friends, rather than counting up
score after score of pulls at her door bell.
OF late years, the city having grown so
that even elevated trains are unable to sup
ply the demand for rapid transit, it has be-
come simple physical impossibility for any
man to approximately comply with this so
cial custom, and it is several years now since
it was regarded as social duty. In fact,
so grossly abused have been the hospitali
ties, SO egregiously asinine have been the
developments Of the suddenly rich along the
line of display, that quiet and respectable
people, who care moro for old fashioned
courtesy and lifelong friendship than for
the flip pant compliments of noodledum,
have little by little withdrawn from par
ticipation in the custom of receiving or pay
ing New Years calls
Others who dislike exceedingly to give up
all recognition of the day content them
selves by sending cards, very tame and
unexciting mode for one to inform his
friends that he still lives and holds them in
his memory. Howard in Boston Globe.